Sometimes God takes His written word and causes it to leap off the page! This happened to me in October, 1981. Isaiah 60:21-22 has become the most-marked, most-read and most-prayed passage in every Bible I have owned. You might call these my life verses – promises that revealed God’s continuous presence in my life.
A verse treasured is precious, but seeing it's fulfillment is priceless. Last week several events converged to remind me of that time and of all God did. A dear young father in our church, Clay Furlow, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. A prayer meeting was called within minutes of the news. As I rushed to the church, I remembered what He had done for my mother--of what He had done for me. I saw the past faithfulness of the Lord. When I saw the grief and fear in Clay's three children, I remembered my fear in 1981 and shared the testimony of the miracle God did in 1981.
I was a busy thirty-three-year-old mother
of three children, ages five, seven and ten. My mother was diagnosed with a golf-ball-sized
brain tumor. I was doubtful that she had
faith in a Savior to get her through. She had been raised in a very “religious”
family but had turned away from church. Her mother never let her forget how she
had disappointed her and my Baptist deacon grandfather.
Mama had made it clear that she did
not want to hear about God and church, so I was hesitant to bring up faith. But faith was all I had! I did not want to frighten her by
suggesting that she wouldn't make it through surgery. I was fearful that I would not do what God led
me to do – that I would let her die without knowing Him. A pastor and friend counseled me to pray for her if, and only if, I felt the
leading and boldness of the Lord. Her salvation didn’t depend on me! This was probably the first
counsel that told me to trust my heart and what the Lord spoke to ME, not
in formulas or “ought to’s”.
I drove to
Gulfport alone. The day before the surgery, I
had some time alone with Mama in her room at Memorial Hospital.
Gathering all the courage I had, I told Mama that I knew that she had been
criticized and condemned but that God loved her so very much. I could tell this
touched her heart, for all she had seen or heard of Christianity, even from me,
had been the hardness of self-righteousness and “religion”. I prayed a prayer
for God to protect her through the surgery. I prayed that the results would be
much better than we even dared to ask or think - like in Ephesians 3:20, “God
is able to do abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that
works in us.” I told her that I loved
her. I left it at that. I did not tell her she must pray the prayer of
salvation.
I got up early to pray on the morning
of her surgery. I felt so very alone. Desperate. I thumbed through my Bible and
“happened to find” Isaiah 60:21-22.
Then all your people will be
righteous
They
will possess the land forever
The branch of my planting,
The work of My hands
That I may be glorified.
The smallest one will become a clan
And the least one a mighty nation.
I, the Lord will hasten it in its
time.
I knew God was
speaking to me! I remembered the times as a child that I had cried out to God
for my parents and for the husband and children I wanted some day – desiring
more for my life than the turmoil and unhappiness I knew. I had this hidden
life in my heart – Jesus. When we went to our fishing camp on weekends – I
wandered around in the woods, clutching my little white King James Bible. I prayed. How
alone I felt in my faith! Through this scripture, the Lord
was saying that that this little girl who sat with other people's families in church and who cried out to Him
would become a CLAN! All my people would
be righteous. All. And He would hasten its fulfillment!
As a child I sensed God’s presence and felt a deep longing for spiritual things. I admired a
few Christian families and Sunday School teachers from a distance, but I had no spiritual guidance. My
grandparents were churchgoers and influenced me, but even I could see
that my grandmother was harsh to my mother, emphasizing “law” and “rules”, not
showing her the love and grace of Jesus. (more about that in another story). Although
I had walked the aisle at Grace Memorial Baptist Church and been baptized, I
interpreted my relationship with God in light of what saw in my grandmother, as
a “religion”. I began resent my parents. Self-righteousness crept in. When I spoke to Mama
about church or about her drinking problem, she got aggravated and said “you
are just like my mother” – not a compliment.
The silent treatment followed. She
said she didn’t go to church because all they preached about was drinking. I remember sermons about John 3:16 and
the love of Jesus, but I guess condemnation was all she heard and felt. I knew she was addicted to alcohol. I knew also that my grandfather’s family had a
strong history of alcoholism. My family life was angry and chaotic.
The brain surgery
went well, but the doctor said he was sure the lab would confirm what he knew
already, that the tumor was malignant and that it had metastasized from another part of her body. Mama, Daddy
and I cried. Mama said that she was thankful because she had asked God to allow
her to live to raise her children, and He had. When the lab report came back,
the neurosurgeon was stunned to see that the mass was not cancerous after
all, but a blood clot from a stroke, saying that the chance of this occurring
was one in a million. The oncology specialist said “I spent days trying to
prove she has cancer, but I can’t.” I
can believe that the doctor made a mistake or that God actually changed the
substance of the tumor. Either way, I see clearly that He ordered the events and
circumstances to make the greatest spiritual impact, to hasten the work He
was doing, like Isaiah 60:22 said.
While my
mother was recovering in the hospital, my brother and his wife found a Baptist church
near them, waited for the invitation, and walked the aisle, committing their lives
to the Lord! I can still remember
meeting them in the hallway of the hospital that Sunday afternoon, their faces
beaming They couldn’t wait to tell me! Mike said that I had always told him he
needed to get saved. I don’t remember that! The next week my dad called and
told me that he didn’t know if he would get “re-baptized” like Mike did (that
was his understanding of what had happened), but that he wasn’t so dumb that he
didn’t know that the Lord had something to do with Mama’s healing! The Lord was
indeed “hastening it in its time.”
A few weeks later, my mother asked Mike and Nancy to take her to church. She must have thought a lot during her
recovery, because, as soon as the choir began to sing “Just As I Am”, she
rushed down the aisle with tears in her eyes. God had begun to
fulfill Isaiah 60. I
could trust that He held the keys to my family’s salvation and would bring it
to pass! I admit I have had some doubts.
My mother’s alcoholism continued to progress and, although I saw a
softening toward me, there was not a lot of evidence that God had changed her
life. Still, I trust in the Word God gave me that morning of the surgery. He promised that “ALL my people would be
righteous”. ALL. Yes, ALL!
God spoke to me
on the drive back that I must not let all He had done that week be forgotten –
that I should write about His healing of Mama’s brain tumor, of changed hearts
in Mama, Mike and Nancy, and the story of His work in the heart of a small girl
who did not know she would become a clan! This began my calling to write this
story of my family--the story of the least one becoming a clan.
Isaiah 60:21-22 has never left me. Its impact
is always there. It is my core passage. The story
of a little girl who became a clan unfolded and continues to unfold. How my
clan has grown! There are eleven grandchildren! I see the fulfillment of my
promise in their lives every day! How blessed I am! I believe my “clan” includes
all who have come into my sphere of influence. The sphere continues to grow. Thirty-five years have gone by, and the Lord has given me
more and more understanding of His character and His truth.
In 1981, there
was no Message translation of the Bible.
It is not one I use regularly, but you will love this version of “my
verse”!
The runt will become a great tribe,
The weakling become a strong nation.
I am God.
At the right time I’ll make it happen.
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